The original build of my anchor arm kind of hinged on the theory that it would only be used when raising or lowering the anchor, not when actually sitting at anchor, since I have a special strongpoint in the bow for that. The problem with this theory was of course that the forces on the anchor arm can get pretty nasty anyway.

So it broke because it was too weak. Then I made a new end fitting in stainless steel. Much stronger. But the original plastic rollers had cracked, so I thought rubber rollers would be nice, since rubber doesn’t crack. But the rubber quickly got worn to pieces by the chain, so that theory didn’t work either. As a stop gap I put some Aluminum tube there the last months of sailing, but now, finally, with big thanks to Mr Anders H, I have very macho rollers made from 40x6mm stainless pipe with a POM core. Here’s to hoping this will really be the end of the anchor arm story.

Now that the ballast tanks are strong, there are a few other things… :-)

One thing that I clearly did not make strong enough was the anchor arm. It was bent a few times already before we left Sweden. And in the swell in the anchorage outside Ascension it got really destroyed in a big wave. The force of the wave was made worse by the fact that the anchor chain had gotten jammed in some cracks in the lava rocks on the bottom, so the length of chain that was acting as a spring was not at all as long as it should be.

So I gave up on fixing this in aluminium. Here in Salvador I located a stainless steel workshop and gave them a drawing of what a new one should look like. I was slightly apprehensive of the result, since the shop was pretty trashy and the man had only two fingers left on one hand. But today he showed up on the dock with what is actually a pretty good looking piece of work. This is now in 6mm stainless instead of 10mm aluminium, so it is much much stronger.

To start: I apologize for the web site not working very well since yesterday. My Internet provider has apparently screwed up things at their end. I hope things will improve, otherwise it will take a few days to move to a new one.

Anyways…. The work on and in the sail locker has been completed! Yay! In this image you can see the anchor chain storage box:

It is welded from polymer sewage pipe by a local plastics company. This solutions gives us a lightweight and very durable chain storage. As the chain is galvanized steel, it is very important to keep it away from contact with the hull, so we have to use a plastic storage box. The soft and low friction plastic is also ideal to reduce abrasion wear on the walls by the chain.

As you can also see in this picture the hatch is also completed, including a gas spring to hold it open.

First of all I would like to thank all of you who came by to say hello during the Stockholm Boat Show. I was really surprised by the number of people and all the nice comments. Thank You All!!

Now it’s back to work at full speed. While I was away the bow has been completed, and it looks very good even if the gennacker and genoa chainplates are still covered in protection. Notice the foldable anchor arm, which is also equipped with gas springs that will make lifting it in and out of the anchor-box very easy.

Unfortunately there are also some new problems, like the anchor box hatch was manufactured up-side down, and the keel-box has not yet been completed due to some accidental welding deformations that have to be repaired. But that’s all normal issues that we will be dealing with shortly!